This collection consists of two preparatory drawings for the oil painting The Bee Tree in the museum's collection (2012.119). Recalling an event that took place decades earlier during a family reunion on a farm in Brecksville, Ohio, this painting depicts the felling of a tree to extract a honeycomb in its trunk. The artist-who taught more than 40 years at his alma mater, the Cleveland School (now Institute) of Art-presents himself as the young man straddling the tree in the center of the composition. The painting and drawings were donated to the museum in 2012.
